In this talk, Professor Charles A. Nelson, Harvard University, discusses what happens to children whose experience after birth deviates from the norm; specifically, infants who experience profound early neglect. In the Bucharest Early Intervention Project three groups of Romanian children are being studied: infants abandoned to institutions and who remain in institutional care; infants abandoned to institutions but then placed in high quality foster care; and infants who have never been institutionalized. These three groups have been studied for the past 16 years and in this talk he discusses the findings from a variety of domains (including but not limited to IQ, attachment, and brain development). This work will be considered within the broader context of the 140 million parentless children around the world, 8 million of whom are being raised in institutional settings.

Professor Nelson’s research interests are concerned with the effects of early experience on brain and behavioural development, particularly the effects of early biological insults and early psychosocial adversity. He studies both typically developing children and children at risk for neuro-developmental disorders (particularly autism), and he employs behavioural, electrophysiological (ERP), and metabolic (fNIRS and MRI) tools in his research. He leads the Nelson Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital in carrying out research on many aspects of infant and child development.